


Optimistic Nonsense

by Ellienerd14



Series: Class Appreciation Week [6]
Category: Class (TV 2016), Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Gen, In which the Doctor accidentally goes to Shoreditch, Judoon - Freeform, M/M, Quill is horrified at her new attraction to the Doctor, mostly just friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-06 01:12:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16378562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellienerd14/pseuds/Ellienerd14
Summary: After getting lost again, the Doctor, Yasmin and Ryan find themselves in Shoreditch and meet a group of teenagers with a complicated history with them. Tasked with catching Prisoner Twelve and stopping the Judoon from blowing up London in the process, the two groups work together.-A fic for Class Appreciation Day 2018!





	Optimistic Nonsense

“You said we’d get a planet this time,” Yaz complained, sticking her head outside the TARDIS and taking in a pretty grey street.

“Earth is a planet,” the Doctor replied, hopping out. “The TARDIS has made up her mind.”

She stroked the box fondly. The Doctor got like that with ship sometimes and Yaz had eventually decided to stop asking. All the answers made the Doctor seem like a lovesick teenager, even if she claimed to be over two thousand years old.

“Where are we though, exactly?” Ryan asked, following her. “Bet it’s London. There’s always alien stuff going on in London.”

The Doctor scanned the air. “London. Shoreditch. Sounds familiar and yet,” she hit her forehead with the sonic, “nope. Nothing. It’ll come to me, I’m sure.”

“Are we just wandering until we find trouble?”

Yaz grinned and waited for him to catch up. “That’s kinda her M.O. isn’t it Ry?”

“I guess.” He smiled back. “Hey, remember the school trip to aquarium-”

“Year six!” Yaz finished. “That was pretty fun. Apart from the part when Rhys threw up in the shark tank.”

Ryan laughed, bumping their shoulders together. “You were my trip buddy for that.”

“I remember!” They followed the Doctor, continuing to recall their childhood memories. It was the first time she’d been in London. Same for Ryan, she bet.

With a swish of her coat, the Doctor vanished into a little shop excitedly.

“She’s walking into a cafe.”

“Wanna bet if it’s for chips or aliens?”

“Both?”

By the time the pair had caught up, the Doctor was chatting to an old lady behind the counter.

“Found anything Doctor?”

She nodded. “Well, firstly it’s half off on sandwiches so I got you some.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t tell Graham,” Ryan joked, “the one trip he misses and we get lunch.”

“No empty pockets today!” The Doctor added, pulling out a glamorous 1920s glitter covered purse. It was hardly a strange sight; they’d learnt to expect the unexpected with her.

“Find any trouble?”

“Don’t I always?” she answered, beaming. “Come on team!”

The Doctor grabbed the food and tossed it at them. Yaz caught both of them. Just like their school trip, complete with a hectic schedule and packed lunches and getting lost.

The three stepped out, oblivious of a young teenager hastily texting out a photo of them in the corner.

 

* * *

 

Ram, as usual, was the last to arrive. April had found a marker pen somewhere and was drawing on a touristy map.

“Finally!”

“Tan said that the Doctor was a woman.” He panted. “Like, a whole different person. And somehow that’s not the weirdest thing to happen to us this week.”

Charlie smiled. “They must have regenerated. It’s normal for a Time Lord to change their appearance.”

Ram swore. “Where’s our break? I thought that now we stopped going to Coal Hill, we would get to stop chasing aliens around London.”

“You love it really,” April insisted. “You came, didn’t you?”

Ram sighed. “I can’t believe I’m still friends with you dorks.”

Tanya held up her phone. “Well, this dork’s girlfriend has just found the TARDIS.”

“We find that, we found them.”

 

* * *

 

“So, there’s reports of rhinoceros people running around and scaring locals.”

“What?”

“Confused again?”

The Doctor turned around. “Judoon really. Part of the Shadow Proclamation. Something must have escaped to here and they’re hunting it. Causing chaos too, by the sounds of it.”

“And they’re trying to arrest it?” Ryan guessed. “So, we’re in safe hands. Wait, do rhinoceros have hands?”

“Did you forget the causing chaos part?”

“To be fair,” Yaz replied, “we cause our fair share of chaos too.”

The Doctor scrunched her nose. “Well, yes. But the Judoon are like police, but very stupid. They don’t care for human life at all.”

“Great.”

“A few years ago, they stole a hospital and put it on the moon,” she continued, “I stopped them. But I had some help. Wonderful woman it was. Doctor Martha Jones.”

There was a certain fondness in her voice that reminded Yaz of the family the Doctor said she carried with her.

“How do we find these Ju-moons?” Ryan cracked up at his own joke.

“Follow the chaos.” The Doctor pointed the sonic around until there was a steady buzzing. It seemed to be what she was looking for. “Which is… that way. Come on team!”

 

* * *

 

Ryan wasn’t sure what to expect when the Doctor suggested they needed a back up plan. He still wasn’t sure what they were picking up, even as the Doctor flung various devices at them.

Yaz struggled as another cable was added to her pile. “Is this not enough yet?”

“Oh, I haven’t found it yet.” The Doctor dropped something with a metallic _clang_. “You can drop that stuff if you want.”

In synch, they both dropped their piles of well… spacey stuff.

“Is it a gun?”

“Ryan no!”

“Guns… Shoreditch… aliens… it’s on the top of my- found it!”

The Doctor climbed out of the storage panel holding a little sliver machine. It dinged as she waved it around victoriously.

“What is it?” Yaz asked.

“Looks sci-fi-ish.”

“Displacement scanner. Should help track the tech the Judoon use. Which should lead us to what they’re looking for. In theory.”

It sounds like optimistic nonsense, which to be fair, was what the Doctor did best.

Yaz and Ryan followed her out of the TARDIS, only to hear the scanner she had searched for drop to the floor and an unfamiliar voice say her name.

“Doctor!”

 

* * *

 

“Charlie!”

The woman, who was apparently the Doctor’s new face, grinned at the group, pulling Charlie into a hug.

“You’re here!”

“Of course,” they (she?) answered, “I knew I was forgetting something.”

“Yaz, Ryan!” They called, poking their head into the TARDIS, “come meet some old friends.”

The two young people who followed her out looked their age and friendly. Yaz had her dark hair pulled into space buns and wore a leather jacket over a faded Star Wars t-shirt. Ryan was taller, in a checked shirt and jeans. A simple outfit but there was something about him that left Ram with his mouth hanging open slightly.

Tanya coughed something that suspiciously rhymed with ‘disaster bi’ whilst April pinched her boyfriend, biting back a laugh.

“New companions?”

“To match a new face!” The Doctor answered.

“Yeah, we noticed,” Tanya replied dryly. “You look like Quill a bit. With the blonde.”

Charlie frowned at his guardian-turned-landlord’s name.

“So, how long has it been?”

“Two years since you first dropped us off here. One year since we last saw you.”

The Doctor beamed. “Look at you now!”

Ram had many biting remarks on how they could have used a few more visits but didn’t quite manage to say anything.

“Charlie was it?” Yaz asked, “hi.”

“Yes. These are my… friends? April, Tanya and Ram. And my lovely boyfriend Matteusz.” He looked up fondly at him.

“Are you here about the rift?” Tanya asked, “there was this weird thing that got out and set off the alarm. They told Quill it was someone trying to steal computers.”

“Basically code for aliens,” Matteusz finished.

“That would be the escaped thing!” The Doctor threw her arm around Yaz’ shoulder. “See, we wandered and made friends and now we know things.”

“Again, kinda your M.O.”

“You’re looking for it too then?” Tanya pressed on. “Because I saw you getting lunch earlier at my Grandma’s cafe.”

“I get cravings. New mouth. New-ish.”

“Doctor, please,” Charlie pleaded, “how can we help?”

 

* * *

 

They had split up into three teams, leaving Yaz with Tanya and Matteusz. The girl had offhandedly mentioned she was only sixteen and Yaz felt a sudden pressure to keep her safe. It was the same age as her own sister, back at home. Tanya wasn’t much like Sonya but Yaz felt a duty to protect her nonetheless.

“Do you actually know what a Judoon looks likes?”

“Like a rhino,” Yaz answered, “but it’s an alien. It won’t blend in very well.”

Tanya grinned and elbowed her friend. “Oh, I’ve heard aliens can be _very_ human like.”

“Shut up.”

“Nice try mate.” Tanya turned to Yaz. “Why do you travel with… her? The Doctor I mean.”

“I wanted something exciting and challenging and fun. I liked training but domestic house calls get boring. I joined the Police to make a difference. The Doctor helps us do that. In the past and future.”

“You’re in the police? My Dad was too. I always used to worry about him coming home.” Tanya bit her lip. “Now you travel in a police box. Strange how things work out.”

“How do you guys know the Doctor?”

Tanya and Matteusz shared a look.

“It is a long story,” Matteusz started, “that starts with a beautiful boy asking me to prom.”

 

* * *

 

“And I knocked the Shadow Kin back into the weird portal with a chair leg,” Ram finished. “With only one leg myself, by the way.”

Besides him, April laughed.

“So, you only have one leg?”

“Got a new one from the Doctor. He was very unsympathetic.”

Ryan frowned. “He?”

“Yeah,” Ram answered, “we were as surprised as you. The Doctor was much taller and well, a man. Pretty cool they changed.”

“Don’t forget, very Scottish,” April added. “I like her accent now too.”

“She sounds like us,” Ryan answered, “but like, not from real Sheffield. From… Gal-galaxy? No, that’s not it. I’m bad with names.”

The couple smiled at each other. “Sheffield?”

Ryan shrugged. “Who would have thought that’s where an alien would fall from the sky to.”

“Yeah,” April agreed, still grinning, “bloody Sheffield.”

 

* * *

 

“I’m lucky to have bumped into you,” the Doctor said. She was fiddling with the strange device but Charlie knew better than to ask. “The Judoon will most likely listen to you.”

“Rhodia was part of the funding of the Shadow Proclamation. I remember.”

The Doctor put down the device. “Charlie?”

“It’s been hundreds of years for you and you still miss Gallifrey. I keep trying to honour the memory of my people but-” he closed his eyes, “does it ever feel like too much pressure? To honour a whole race, a whole planet by yourself?”

“You don’t have to remember everyone, every detail, every moment at once. That burns you up. I carry my family with me, always with me, because they were the best. Leave a light on. Write stories. Any legacy, is a strong legacy, however small, with enough passion.”

 

* * *

 

They had been wandering around for so long that Yaz was starting to suspect there wasn’t anything to find, until a lot happened at once.

First, a flash of purple blurred in front of them. Then, closer, enough to scratch the edge of her jacket and hands. It surrounded them, knocking them off balance. Matteusz pushed Tanya behind him protectively as they all tumbled backwards.

Yaz regained her balance first and scanned for the purple alien. She spotted it in the corner of her eye, claws raised, before a woman came barreling into it with full force.

“Come on, help me,” she yelled.

Tanya and Matteusz hurried over, helping to restrain the wiggling form under her foot.

“What the hell are you doing with this Ax’i?”

Yaz hurried over to help. She took a photo of it and sent it to Ryan.

The woman looked her up and down and scowled. “Who is this?”

“It is okay,” Matteusz said, “Yaz is a friend of the Doctor.”

The vicious blonde woman snorted. “Of course he is involved. Sure, for aliens he’ll be back but when you very generously invite him to your baby shower, nothing!”

Tanya snickered. “Only you could be wrestling an alien and complaining about baby showers.”

“It is the Quill way.”

“That’s what the Judoon is looking for I think,” Yaz said, “looks pretty vicious.”

“What are you doing here?” Tanya asked. “Not that we aren’t happy to see you Quill.”

“The alarm went off in the school. My personal alarms. He must have slipped out of the rift.”

“You called it an ‘Ax’i’.”

Quill dug her heel into its chest. “It is an Ax’i. Fighting race. Old enemies of the Quill.”

“I thought the Rhodia were the enemies of the Quill.”

She rolled her eyes. “We had a lot of old enemies.”

“You-” he hissed, making them all jump a little, “will hand me over?”

“I’m all for blowing up the Judoon,” Quill answered, “but Ax’i have a habit of eating baby Quills fresh from the nest. And the Judoon only come after serious criminals. So,” she gritted her teeth, “yes.”

The Ax’i hissed again. “Not today.”

He moves suddenly, yanking on Quill’s leg and rolling away, heel still lodged in its chest. It cursed in a sharp language Yaz didn’t understand and pushed past her, knocking her off balance for the second time.

Tanya offered her a hand and pulled Yaz to her feet.

“We go after it?”

“I’ve taught you so well.”

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, Ryan’s group had caught their first sight of the Judoon, who marched through the road loudly. He pushed April and Ram backwards and ducked out of sight.

“I see what she meant with ‘rhinos’,” April commented, “but who are they looking for?”

Ryan’s phone buzzed and he held it up to them. “This thing, I bet?”

 

* * *

 

On a different street corner, the other two groups collided.

“Ah,” the Doctor grinned, “any progress?”

“Well hello,” Quill pushed herself to the front of the group, “finally, a companion of his who isn’t a child. I’m Quill, the woman, the myth, the legend.” She winked. “What planet did that idiot pick you up from and where can I get a lift to it?”

From behind her, Yaz could hear Charlie trying to hold back a laugh whilst his friends shushed him.

They were kind of weird, that group.

“Well, um, actually-” the Doctor stammered, starting to get flustered. Yaz was considering stepping in until Tanya pulled on her sleeve and shook her head.

Quill smirked and stepped closer. “Don’t worry, I can protect you-”

The Doctor bit her lip. “Actually um-”

“I’m a fighter at heart but for you I’ll-”

“Doctor!” Ryan interrupted, running down the hill at top speed.

“Doctor?” Quill echoed, “no. Not you.”

“Yes. But, I’m very flattered and-”

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Quill glared at the giggling teenagers behind her. “You brats knew!”

“I think you’re a cute couple,” Tanya started, smiling sweetly. Maybe there was a bit more of Sonya in her than Yaz originally thought.

Ryan glanced between the two. “Ok, we’ve missed…. Something. But we found the Judoon!”

“We found the Ax’i,” Yaz added.

“Brillant!” the Doctor exclaimed, “so, we bring the two together and stop the Judoon doing anything stupid, with time for a catch up.” She glanced at Quill hopefully, who still looked mildly disgusted with herself.

“We lost it,” Matteusz admitted, “it was pretty fast. It knocked us over and ran off.”

“Are you alright?” Charlie asked quickly, fussing over his boyfriend. It was quite sweet actually.

“He’s fine,” Tanya remarked, “so am I, by the way.”

“We’ll find it,” the Doctor said, with a hint of determination, “and the Judoon?”

“They’re up in one of the warehouses by the school.”

“Great. I’ll go negotiate with them. Judoon aren’t historically known for being smart but I’ll give it a go. Quill, can you track down the Ax’i for me?”

Quill nodded. “Fine. But, only because my new shoe is stuck in it. Not because I like you.”

“You seemed to like her plenty earlier.”

“Adeola,” she warned, snappily.

“I’ll go with Quill,” Tanya volunteered. “You too, giraffe boy.”

“I get no choice?”

“Nope. Having you and Charlie on the same team is insufferable. If an Ax’i is going to rip my head off, I do not want to die hearing you flirting.”

Yaz cracked a smile at her dry humour. “Yeah, I’ll help.”

Ryan moved to her. “Same.”

“Great!” The Doctor turned to April, Ram and Charlie, “come on then, off to the Judoon.”

Ram followed her, although he gave a long mournful look at Ryan first.

Yaz laughed again, despite the daunting task ahead. “We meet the weirdest people travelling with her.”

“Tell me about it.”

 

_(Quill bring the Ax’i, now with two heels rammed in it, ten minutes later. They all spend the night at Shoreditch, talking about aliens and family and place bets on if and when Quill will kiss the new regeneration of the Doctor - Tanya wins. The Judoon’s ship leaves a streak of blue smoke in the sky and they watch it fly off together._

_Yaz decides that they may be weird but she most definitely has found new friends in this corner of the world._

_Ryan is just glad Graham wasn’t there to tease him on the obvious crush Ram had developed._

_And, the Doctor, she’s glad to see her team being as amazing as she hoped.)_

**Author's Note:**

> What can I say about how much I adore Class? A show that came at a point when I needed a big distraction from my awful mental health and the chaos of life. I related to the characters, mostly Tanya, and after Nightvisiting, I was hooked. My [first ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8594134) fic was just the start of many and I loved the creativity it brought me. I know my show is far from perfect but it was _my show_ that brought me so many friends and joy. 
> 
> But, now the fandom has died down a little and the demand for fic has generally vanished and the audios have left me with some closure, I think this will be my last fic for a while. I'll finish my [superhero au](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15732669/chapters/36578115) and then go back to exploring new fandoms and fics. Plus, some actual studying, now my A-levels gave began. 
> 
> So, thank you for reading my works and supporting me! You can always chat to me in the [ class discord ](https://discord.gg/r6Ur6bF) or on my tumblr: @bazwillendinflames or twitter: @ellienerd14. 
> 
> We go on and on and on....


End file.
